


Itihaas

by AllegoriesInMediasRes



Series: Baahubali fics [14]
Category: Baahubali (Movies)
Genre: ABCDE Redux Meme, Gen, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-27 08:24:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16215233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AllegoriesInMediasRes/pseuds/AllegoriesInMediasRes
Summary: Two things the history books never recorded about Devasena, and three kisses that were significant to Avantika.Title means “history”.





	Itihaas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avani](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avani/gifts).



**Devasena**

1\. She did not always hate Sivagami. In fact, she heard stories of the brave and wise Rajmata of Mahishmati to the north, who ruled a kingdom that did not belong to her by marriage or by blood, who once slit a man’s throat in open court with her infant son in her arms, who loved her orphaned nephew as much as she did her son by blood. As a young child orphaned, with a brother only eight years older than her as her stand-in parent, she would sometimes imagine what it would be like for the Queen Mother to adopt her too. (She is glad such a thing never happened, for then her Baahu would have been like a brother to her. But still, sometimes she wonders if under other circumstances, her mother-in-law could have been the mother she never had, and Devasena the daughter Sivagami Devi never had.)

Her daydreams burn to ashes when she comes to Mahishmati at last and sees the woman’s true blindness and superiority for herself. But she never forgets the legend that Sivagami Devi was, and how impossible it sometimes is for a woman to live up to a legend-- Devasena herself included.

2\. The history books write of the smile on her face when she walked onto the battlefield carrying Bhadra’s head so that Bhallaladeva could see through his telescope. But what they don’t write of is the blood that Devasena tasted behind that smile. She had been vaguely fond of the young boy who would tag along with his father and grandfather, even if he was taught to throw sticks and laugh at her. He was the first child she had seen in years of her imprisonment, and looking at him was the closest thing she had to visualizing what Mahendra would look like in front of her eyes. In another lifetime, that child may have been her Mahendra’s brother.

But in this lifetime, he was raised by his vile father and grandfather, and Mahendra -- Shivu -- chopped off his head. He earned his beheading, but still, Devasena wishes there had been a way to ensure that the family feud did not bleed into the next generation.

* * *

 

**Avantika**

1\. Avantika does not remember her parents, gone before she could walk, but she does recall she had an ‘aunt’ of sorts who took her under her wing. One day, when she was about five, an illness swept the camps, and Avantika caught a mild bout of it. She was more fortunate than most, but still ill enough that her aunt had to coax her into finishing her meal. Once Avantika was finished, her aunt had patted her shoulder and dropped a brief kiss on her forehead. She murmured, “Good girl” almost distractedly, before hurrying off to go about some other business.

Avantika was five, but even then did not she did not resent the perfunctory gesture. Children grow up fast in the rebel camps, and she knew her aunt in all likelihood had more important things to be doing than coddling a cranky child. 

Later that day, her ‘aunt’ caught the most virulent strain of the sickness; two weeks later, she was dead. 

That was the last time anyone would kiss Avantika for eighteen years.

2\. Her first kiss with Shivu -- Mahendra. Though they eventually went their separate ways, she still appreciated their courtship, brief as it was. He was the first man to ever look at her like that, and to show her that there was more to life beyond the ever-present mission. It was the first time she ever allowed desire to flourish within her, and the first time it was reciprocated. She was glad of such a gift, even if it was no more than a memory.

3\. When she finally meets Queen Devasena in the flesh, she drops a brief kiss on her forehead, and it is as though Avantika’s life is complete.


End file.
